ALBUM REVIEW: King Zog – King Zog
Hailing from the mighty Perth, Western Australia comes the heavy crushing sound of KING ZOG, the debut and self-titled album, KING ZOG is the perfect blend between everything the doom or sludge metal fan could ask for, from the crushing riffs to the perfect rhythms and awe striking clean vocals this could arguably be one of the best sounds to be released so far this year. Although the band has been active since 2014, they have finally captured there monstrous sound and will now unleash it upon the world for all to be enlightened.
The first track from this debut album is titled Lost At Sea, this song begins with a very memorable distorted riff with an almost grunge sounding riff, then with the second guitars joining in to really thicken the sound, next to join are the drums and bass to give it a push towards the fuzzy, doomy side and then it really begins to rip through the ears drums but also keeping you anchored is the clean, rhythmic vocals that really makes this sound, lead then becomes known with an excellent solo that really helps the song progress until finish.
Another exceptional moment in this debut is the song Temple’s Temple another big hit from this album that just needs to be listened too, it begins with a chugging riff that is extremely thick with fuzz, which resembles sounds that you might find on a SLEEP song. The drums add to the build-up of the first section of this song and the clean vocals just to put the icing on the cake so to speak. They then transition into an epic chorus with chanting the song title this would get any crowd instantly going and singing along. After repeating this a few times and you wish it would never stop, they again build up and hit one note and ring the song out until it fades away.
The last track from this album is titled Season in Hell. A snowy windy sound begins the track and an eerie piano sound helps to enhance this until dropping into the song with full force of fuzz, with sections of composure and the guitars serenading us with doomy riffs that is just simply mind blowing, the band then slows the sound down perfect for the slow head banging we all love and again the clean vocals from Daniel Durack instantly makes you want to join in, the clean chorus section to this song almost like CANDLEMASS with the riff that is played which is simply awesome. Directly at the 4:20 mark they change the songs direction and begin to pick up speed and just destroy the listeners ears with a fuzz induced solo, followed by super slow riffs that calm the audience down for the return of the snowy wind while fading out.
If comparisons had to be made in terms of the actual sounds it’s easy to suggest bands such as ELECTRIC WIZARD, GOAT SNAKE and REVEREND BIZARRE as they are all in a similar light but can clearly see the influences from that early doom sound. All in all this album has been excellently recorded with a great sound to it and will forever be an outstanding addition to the doom metal scene with hopefully more to come from KING ZOG.
Rating: 9/10
King Zog is out now via self-release.
Like KING ZOG on Facebook.